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UCL-Energy alumni in conversation about their time at The Bartlett
20 July 2017
Dr Jenny Love, Dr Sofie Pelsmakers, and Dr Carrie Behar discuss their studies, achievements and give tips to current PhD students in recent interviews after being nominated Bartlett Alumni Role Models
Dr Jenny Love completed her PhD at UCL-Energy as part of the London – Loughborough EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Energy Demand (LoLo CDT), where she studied how energy efficient building retrofit might change occupants’ heating behaviour. She is now a Research Associate in Energy and Buildings at the UCL Energy Institute and is part of the RCUK Centre for Energy Epidemiology. Discussing her experience of the PhD programme she said:
I think the PhD programme gave us an exceptional amount of contact with non-academic stakeholders and many opportunities to develop our presentation skills – more so than in typical PhD programmes.”
Dr Sofie Pelsmakers graduated in 2016 after completing her PhD in Building Energy Demand Reduction, also with a LoLo CDT studentship. She is currently a Lecturer in Environmental Design at the University of Sheffield and Head of Research at ECD Architects. In her interview she reminisced on her selection interview:
To this day I remember coming out of the selection interview feeling invigorated and intellectually challenged – I am glad to say that this never changed during my 4 year journey at the Bartlett.”
Dr Carrie Behar graduated from the UCL Energy Institute in 2016 and is currently a Senior Sustainability Consultant at Useful Projects (part of the Useful Simple Trust). She also was funded by LoLo. In her interview with The Bartlett she highlighted the importance of encouraging women to pursue PhDs and enter into construction industries:
Academic research and the construction industry are still very male-dominated environments so I think it’s great to highlight the achievements of women. I regularly attend meetings where I am the only woman in the room, and the senior directors at every single organisation I’ve studied and worked at have all been men too. I would love to see this change over the course of my career so if there’s any way I can help inspire more women to stay on at university and pursue PhDs then I’ll be thrilled.”